Pandora Flash

[Ravnos]

And what if your friend doesn't want you to install the file system on his system? What if you want to transfer files between your Pandora and a work computer, where installing anything is forbidden? What if you want to use it in another device where installing alternate file systems is not even an option?

I'll say it again: There is no compelling reason for the average user to use ext on their SD cards. They will not be solving an problems, and they will be causing themselves all kinds of unnecessary problems. Advising people to use it without good reason is not at all being helpful, it's simply trying to impose your preference on somebody else.

Actually, there is a compelling reason for the average user to use ext over FAT, large files. The Pandora can hypothetically play back 720p video, and I've got a couple of 720p MKV files that are over 4GB. Now, whether or not they'll be using their Pandora to play back large video files, or whether NTFS or Ext makes more sense for that particular user are all separate issues, but there's still a perfectly good reason to prefer something other than FAT.

 

[Yoyobuae]

I wonder if this would be possible: When Pandora is connected to via USB as slave to a PC, have it translate the real filesystem on the SD cards to a filesystem of choice. Then make this "virtual" filesystem visible to the connected PC.

Is the USB slave functionality implemented as software (in kernel)? I'm guessing yes.

 

[WizardStan]

I've got a couple of 720p MKV files that are over 4GB.

Better example: DVD ISOs.

 

[Pleng]

Actually, there is a compelling reason for the average user to use ext over FAT, large files. The Pandora can hypothetically play back 720p video, and I've got a couple of 720p MKV files that are over 4GB. Now, whether or not they'll be using their Pandora to play back large video files, or whether NTFS or Ext makes more sense for that particular user are all separate issues, but there's still a perfectly good reason to prefer something other than FAT.

Ok that's a fair point but then I would still argue that:

a) The average casual user will not need to use files over 4Gb in size, and
b) NTFS would make more sense for exactly the same reasons I stipulated using Fat32 in the first place...

 

[Tom`]

Actually, there is a compelling reason for the average user to use ext over FAT, large files. The Pandora can hypothetically play back 720p video, and I've got a couple of 720p MKV files that are over 4GB. Now, whether or not they'll be using their Pandora to play back large video files, or whether NTFS or Ext makes more sense for that particular user are all separate issues, but there's still a perfectly good reason to prefer something other than FAT.

Ok that's a fair point but then I would still argue that:

a) The average casual user will not need to use files over 4Gb in size, and
B) NTFS would make more sense for exactly the same reasons I stipulated using Fat32 in the first place...

Issues with NTFS: first, it's proprietary, and all current open implementations are reverse-engineered. I believe most Linux distros still mount it read-only for this reason, although since I haven't tried it in ages I don't know whether this is still true. In any event I remember seeing lots of things like "write support experimental, make sure your data is backed up before mounting rw" in documentation.
Second, NTFS is a journaling FS, and people may not want to use that. It probably doesn't support the permissions correctly either.

I do like the USB solution, though, if this is possible in software.

 

[Aninhumer]

Issues with NTFS: first, it's proprietary, and all current open implementations are reverse-engineered. I believe most Linux distros still mount it read-only for this reason, although since I haven't tried it in ages I don't know whether this is still true. In any event I remember seeing lots of things like "write support experimental, make sure your data is backed up before mounting rw" in documentation.
Second, NTFS is a journaling FS, and people may not want to use that. It probably doesn't support the permissions correctly either.

I do like the USB solution, though, if this is possible in software.

I'd agree that NTFS is probably not a good idea, but it is supported fine on Linux now.
Many distros mount NTFS drives RW by default, so it's probably reasonably stable, I've certainly never had any problems with it.

EDIT:
With regards to files bigger than 4GB, I can see only two uses, DVD ISOs and HD video, and it would just be better to transcode them.
For actual data DVDs, you could just copy the files on the disk to a folder.

Obviously these solutions might not be useful for all situations, and there might be some people that need ext2, but I agree with the sentiment that unless you know you're going to need more, just go with FAT32.

 

[Paradox]

I am glad a topic about cards came up so I didn't have to make one myself... now, should we be looking to buy high-speed SDHC cards 15mb/s to 30mb/s speeds or will a bog standard 5mb/s one be fine? I recall on the GP2X, that a faster SD card would let people play the PSX emu a bit faster because it could read the large game ISO's from the card faster or something like that. I've been looking at picking up one of these anyway: Sandisk 32GB ULTRA II SDHC SD Card Class 4

An "ULTRA III" version is twice as fast but about twice the cost, so i'd rather just get two of those for both SD slots.

 

[juniorm33]

I am glad a topic about cards came up so I didn't have to make one myself... now, should we be looking to buy high-speed SDHC cards 15mb/s to 30mb/s speeds or will a bog standard 5mb/s one be fine? I recall on the GP2X, that a faster SD card would let people play the PSX emu a bit faster because it could read the large game ISO's from the card faster or something like that. I've been looking at picking up one of these anyway: Sandisk 32GB ULTRA II SDHC SD Card Class 4

An "ULTRA III" version is twice as fast but about twice the cost, so i'd rather just get two of those for both SD slots.

I would think that a decent class 4 would do fine.
If your copying a lot to and from the card say films, shows, etc and it's a larger card then the faster speed will be useful for that, less time waiting around.
32 is currently the largest, it really depends on how you intend to use it. Put lots of emus and roms on and leave them on, then that wouldn't be a problem at all

 

[Poem58]

I am glad a topic about cards came up so I didn't have to make one myself... now, should we be looking to buy high-speed SDHC cards 15mb/s to 30mb/s speeds or will a bog standard 5mb/s one be fine? I recall on the GP2X, that a faster SD card would let people play the PSX emu a bit faster because it could read the large game ISO's from the card faster or something like that. I've been looking at picking up one of these anyway: Sandisk 32GB ULTRA II SDHC SD Card Class 4

An "ULTRA III" version is twice as fast but about twice the cost, so i'd rather just get two of those for both SD slots.

I asked the card speed question earlier this year and Chip informed me that a class 4 card was as high as anyone needed to go as that would be about as fast as the Pandora could read/write anyway. It was mentioned that anything higher would just benefit those who want to write lots of data to the cards and wanted to shave off some time on the PC.
I was searching at first for class 6 cards only or some Ultra II's, now I am keeping deals on class 4's in my sights. I don't plan on writing my game files more than once. Maybe an Ultra II for writing and rewriting video and music files would be a good idea or running and OS off of like Ubuntu. All comes down to how much you want to spend and what brands you trust. I have read of class 4's that trounced class 6's so do some research.

Edit: Na-Noo beat me...lol Darn my slow half awake 6:30AM typing

 

[GuSec]

I asked the card speed question earlier this year and Chip informed me that a class 4 card was as high as anyone needed to go as that would be about as fast as the Pandora could read/write anyway. It was mentioned that anything higher would just benefit those who want to write lots of data to the cards and wanted to shave off some time on the PC.
I was searching at first for class 6 cards only or some Ultra II's, now I am keeping deals on class 4's in my sights. I don't plan on writing my game files more than once. Maybe an Ultra II for writing and rewriting video and music files would be a good idea or running and OS off of like Ubuntu. All comes down to how much you want to spend and what brands you trust. I have read of class 4's that trounced class 6's so do some research.

Edit: Na-Noo beat me...lol Darn my slow half awake 6:30AM typing

When it comes to speed, please keep in mind that the speed class defines the MINIMUM writing speed, and nothing else. 2MB/s for class 2, 4MB/s for class 4 and of course class 6 - 6MB/s. Cards can in a given moment be way faster than that, up to 20-30MB/s, and there's nothing as far as I know that keeps the Pandora reading and writing from the card at those speeds. What I mean is that you should look at the test speeds for the cards, since they probably are more interesting than the minimum speeds.

When it comes to filesystems I am most probably going to use ext3, and my reason is simple. FAT32 and NTFS are proprietary. We're talking about OPEN Pandora. Using a closed source filesystem (that in some cases even is illegal), just feels pretty damn wrong.

 

[Paradox]

great guess i'll be getting a couple 32GB Ultra II's then

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Edit: found a post about this in an older thread but nobody responded to it.

What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue.

 

[GuSec]

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Interesting idea. It would increase the reading/writing speeds (2x in theory) too since we're using two card-slots!

 

[juniorm33]

great guess i'll be getting a couple 32GB Ultra II's then

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Edit: found a post about this in an older thread but nobody responded to it.

What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue.

I believe although it may not be seen as a single filesystem, you should be able to plug it into a pc and see it as 2 mass storage devices.....

 

[dflemstr]

great guess i'll be getting a couple 32GB Ultra II's then

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Edit: found a post about this in an older thread but nobody responded to it.

What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue.

I believe although it may not be seen as a single filesystem, you should be able to plug it into a pc and see it as 2 mass storage devices.....

1. RAID0 will probably not increase performance, since the Pandora's memory bus isn't infinitely fast and there'll be a limit to how fast data can be read.

2. If you create a RAID0 disk, or LVM disk (LVM has similar performance but is more flexible on Linux), the disks will NOT be seen as two mass storage devices in Windows, but rather as two unformatted drives, since Windows doesn't understand software-RAIDed devices (and there aren't any 3rd-party device drivers available).

 

[rv6502]

great guess i'll be getting a couple 32GB Ultra II's then

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Edit: found a post about this in an older thread but nobody responded to it.

What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue.

I believe although it may not be seen as a single filesystem, you should be able to plug it into a pc and see it as 2 mass storage devices.....

1. RAID0 will probably not increase performance, since the Pandora's memory bus isn't infinitely fast and there'll be a limit to how fast data can be read.

2. If you create a RAID0 disk, or LVM disk (LVM has similar performance but is more flexible on Linux), the disks will NOT be seen as two mass storage devices in Windows, but rather as two unformatted drives, since Windows doesn't understand software-RAIDed devices (and there aren't any 3rd-party device drivers available).

It might increase write performance, but who's really going to do HD video capture with a Pandora and SDHC cards ?
for windows you'll need to use the Pandora itself as a USB drive, then it would work.

not that I see the point, but why not.
I did try "swapon /dev/fd0" once :lol:

 

[WizardStan]

What would be neat is if the pandora could RAID 0 the 2 SD cards to make it look like there's a single 64GB card in there and we could access it using the USB cable to PC rather than taking the cards out putting them into readers and bla bla etc.

Interesting idea. It would increase the reading/writing speeds (2x in theory) too since we're using two card-slots!

No it wouldn't. There may be two cards, but there's only one bus. You may get some speed increase, but it won't be anywhere near to 2x.

edit: is "bus" the word I'm looking for here? My memory is fuzzy on the specifics, but I do recall there is a limiting factor somewhere that meant only one card is accessed at a time.

 

[juniorm33]

I believe although it may not be seen as a single filesystem, you should be able to plug it into a pc and see it as 2 mass storage devices.....

1. RAID0 will probably not increase performance, since the Pandora's memory bus isn't infinitely fast and there'll be a limit to how fast data can be read.

2. If you create a RAID0 disk, or LVM disk (LVM has similar performance but is more flexible on Linux), the disks will NOT be seen as two mass storage devices in Windows, but rather as two unformatted drives, since Windows doesn't understand software-RAIDed devices (and there aren't any 3rd-party device drivers available).

As you quoted me I'm not sure if your saying you will be able to RAID it so it can be seen as a single file system, just not see the performance increase that GuSec mentions? Truth is I've not used linux, since a few years after it came out hahaha

 

[Paradox]

i'm not concerned with speed increase, all I am saying is it would be good to have the 2x SD cards be viewed as one "What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue."

 

[juniorm33]

i'm not concerned with speed increase, all I am saying is it would be good to have the 2x SD cards be viewed as one "What about the possibility of spanning the storage across the two SD slots so they're seen as one drive?

It'd be very helpful for multimedia purposes, instead of keeping track which card has more space, just copy songs and video across to both cards, in addition to being able to plays songs from both cards in the same queue."

Nice thought but I can see some potential problems. What if you remove a single card. If you got 2 32Gig ones, then I can see why they probably wouldn't be coming out anytime soon though

 

[WizardStan]

Nice thought but I can see some potential problems. What if you remove a single card. If you got 2 32Gig ones, then I can see why they probably wouldn't be coming out anytime soon though

It does seem to create more problems then it solves.